With some rope and some help of strong arms everyone manages to get onto the earth seed. As everyone is in touch with the cube and nothing happens, Aithaloessa suggests to concentrate on the Scroll of Kakishon. Which does the trick and all disappear from the realm.
You perceive the instantaneous transportation between worlds not as a flash of light, but as an interminably long gulf of time that lasts for years, emerging into the Scroll of Kakishon’s vicinity somewhat unhinged and deranged from the strange stretching of perceived passage of time.
The walls of this high-ceilinged room are made of of shining brass. Arched passageways obscured by curtains of orange fire lead out in the center of each wall—above each arch, a large rune is inscribed, each different from the others. An oppressive heat covers the room like a blanket, something more than what could be provided by the four curtains of flame. A jumble of open chests, overturned amphorae, and and scattered mounds of coins and gems lie scattered on the floor against the walls. A single phrase in florid script is inscribed along the domed ceiling above in runes similar to those that mark the arches, under which is a stylized rune that resembles an animal - a lizard.
While you get used to the new environment you smell smoke. Checking where it comes from you see the Scroll of Kakishon unrolled on the ground and a spot blackens, smoking, burning a hole that spreads and in only a few moments consume the whole map, leaving only some ash.
Recovering after the 'long' journey, Tariq manages to read the inscriptions out loud.
"Half or Triple plus One... What the... Where the heck are we?"
Once the Earth Seed gets going, or the Knights of Kelmarane going, Aith has the opportunity to wonder if this is what time feels like to an elemental in its, er, element, or what it would have felt like to be trapped in Kakishon for ages.
Something about the experience, disorienting as it is, manages, perversely, to help the scatterbrained mage to focus once she gets spat out into proper space and time again.
The problem is, that just makes her sure that she's not crazy when she concludes that she's pretty sure that they're not back on the material plane. The heat, the metal, the Ignan, the style of the architecture and the coins...
"So much for Kakishon being safe if we took that way out," Aith says glumly - her heart will break properly later - as she jerks the scroll out of her pack just in time to see it burst into flames. "Maybe Lahapraset found a way to get her way too, once we left with Dilix and her friends. At least, I presume we did."
"But," she adds, actually answering Tariq's question. "I think we're on the Plane of Fire. The City of Brass, particularly, I'd guess."
Her hand drops instinctively and almost guiltily to the pistol on her hip, its cold especially pleasant in this unearthly heat, but almost certainly something that the locals will hold against her, to put it mildly.
"As for the numbers ... 2? Or 4? Maybe 2, especially? It's half of 4, but it's three times one half, plus one half?"
"That makes sense, I guess..."
"Well..." Haleen tries to find some orientation in the new place. "Maybe a trip over the edge of the world wouldn't have been that bad."
Rayhan sets up a table in the garden behind the house for the experiment. The scroll is placed there and weighed down with four stones. With everyone around, Rayhan casts read magic on the scroll and everyone who does the same, can see the map of Kakishon - depictions of beautiful islands on a glittering sea.
Rayhan starts touching the islands on the map. Going through his notes he touches the Serpent Isles, Khosravi, Khandelwal, and then he is unsure what to choose next. "It is only 24 possible combinations if my conclusions were right, but I'm lacking the information on what happens if I choose wrong. Does it reset and I can start over again? Or does it have countermeasures against unauthorized attempts to open it?"
Realizing what Aithaloessa said Haleen is confused. "Plane of fire? Why? How do we get out of this? I'm not fire resistant."
Having no context and not being able to read Ignan she inquires "And what is this number game about?"
"It seems a puzzle we've got to solve to pick the right door" Tariq says. "I can read it, but I'm not good at maths."
Realizing what Aithaloessa said Haleen is confused. "Plane of fire? Why? How do we get out of this? I'm not fire resistant."
Having no context and not being able to read Ignan she inquires "And what is this number game about?"
“I’d guess that it’s something like Rayhan said before we got sucked into Kakishon, especially since we were snared into some substitution in a trap – we didn’t enter normally, so that might have unmoored where our exit would point, in the end. If it wasn’t a deliberate part of how Nex designed his demiplane, or if using the Earth Seed was as destabilizing as Lahapraset’s plans, or if she was able to set those in motion anyway as soon as Dilix got started on getting us and her shaitans away…”
The mage’s brows furrow in frustration as she realizes that there’s likely no easy way of finding the correct answer, and that she’s probably the only one who cares so much about the details. “As to why the Plane of Fire, I’d guess luck of the draw, maybe skewed by which genies were trapped so long in there, and with the proteans building things up from raw elements, presumably. At least we weren’t flung into Hell or the Abyss or anything, though Elysium would have been nice.”
“That said, there are cooler patches on the Plane of Fire, and I think the City of Brass is one of them. It’s probably where most visitors go through, at least in the accounts I’ve skimmed. I’m all but exhausted, but I can still protect a couple of us from the heat for a bit, at least, and maybe Yasmeena and Tariq could do for the others?”
"Well, there is a much less complex solution to this mystery." Rayhan states.
"We released Jhavhul when we entered. And as to my knowledge and now also personal experience you enter or exit through the scroll. So probably Jhavhul picked up the scroll and took it with him. And he for sure is a denizen of the plane of fire."
"Eh... I didn't need years of scholarship to deduce that... But have you found out which way to go?"
"Yes. It is an order of passages you have to use. The start is with passage four. As that limits our options about what way to go, it makes it a lot harder to find a way out."
Yasmeena blinks at everyone, trying to determine if there's anything she can do to help solve the puzzle.
“You would know better than I would,” Aith bows to the superior planar expertise of the mage who’s spent so long studying Kakishon and suchlike phenomena. Also, he’s sane, which is probably more than can be said for certain parties who threw themselves into magic as soon as they got out of the Mana Wastes.
“So we should keep an eye out for more numbers, I guess. If we’re starting with four, then ‘half or triple plus one…’ look for two or thirteen next? Well…”
She pauses before the 4th archway. She’s not quite that crazy, so before she sticks her head through the curtain of fire, Aith reaches out with one hand to see if it gets much warmer as she gets close, and then for good measure, casts a protection against fire over herself.
Aithaloessa finds it is not too hot and after casting fire protection even less so. But sticking the head through doesn't work as four large constructs made of brass enter through the four fire curtains and attack.
Yasmeena murmurs a prayer to Sarenrae under her breath (that sounds more like an oath) and draws her bow. She steps closer to Tariq and begins her battle dance, letting fly four arrows.
She winces at the noticeable clang the arrows make against the metallic side of the creature.
Hitting them is no challenge for Yasmeena, but they don't take too much damage from the arrows. The elven mage finds that they are indeed not friendly.
They are surrounded!
Tariq tries to quickly make an alley where some of the most fragiles members could sneak through. He invokes the Lady's blessing and concentrates on one of the giant serpents .
Rayhan decides that fighting four of those at once is highly inconvenient. He casts wall of force to cut two of them off.
With two of the enemies walled off, Haleen moves to block the approach for one of them to Yasmeena.
Tariq adds a deep cut to the one attacking Aithaloessa.
One of the cut off brass men walks out through the fire curtain. Another one comes at Haleen. It gets stabbed by Haleen and misses with its attack.
“Wait! So going in the right order doesn’t make it any safer?” Aith gasps, narrowly avoiding another punch to the face. (It seems to be turning out to be that sort of day, and she doesn’t think she’s being particularly annoyingly weird.) She wonders if she should have trusted her own instincts and chosen Passage #2.
Regardless, she takes a hasty step back and snaps out two shots from her pistol at the creature menacing her and Tariq.
With two lazily aimed shots Aithaloessa has the construct almost breaking apart. The remaining construct starts hammering at the translucent wall.
Yasmeena takes aim and fires four arrows again, aiming first for the nearly broken construct.
One construct goes down.
Haleen moves around the construct to flank with Tariq.
Tariq now can put all of his attention on wielding his blade proper. And that's what he does.
Tariq charges and cuts into the brass man. The brass man returns the favor by beating him.
The brass man who left reappears in the passage behind the one Tariq and Haleen are fighting.
Aith sees the other brass figure circling around, but after the day she’s had, she knows she can’t pull off a trickier shot like that. Instead, she decides to do what she can to help the others take down the one they’re tangling with right now, sparing a moment to try to figure out what their metallic assailants are.
Aithaloessa hits the brassman two more times. The other one keeps stupidly hammering into the wall of force.
Tariq receives a pair of blows which makes him stumble, though he manages to regain balance and slash at the statue once more.
Yasmeena dances 5' closer to Aith and the damaged brass man, firing arrows as she goes.
Tariq destroys the brass man leaving only one target for Yasmeena. Which gets turned into a pincushion to be with two arrows sticking.
The construct steps up and spits out a spurt of molten brass.
Haleen puts herself in the way to block the construct from reaching Yasmeena. Not that she thinks it would be smar tenough to try.
“These things will just shed spells cast directly on them!” Aith calls, more for her own benefit than anything else, and not that she has much energy left for that anyway, as she continues to bob and weave for the best sight lines.
Aithaloessa finds that she's shooting like a stormtrooper, if she's not standing right in front of her target.
The brass man beating the wall of force still looks more incompetent though.
Once the enemy Tariq was fighting is down, he takes care of the new comer. Just a small step and he's beside it, his scimitar flying and chopping chunks of metal.
Yasmeena continues firing arrows at the remaining brass man.
Between Tariq's slashes and Yasmeena's arrows the construct falls apart.
Which leaves only the one behind the wall of force.
"Shall I drop the wall?" Rayhan inquires.
"is this real, or is it summoned? If the latter, we could sit it out on this side of the wall." Haleen suggests.
The magic of her weapon deals with most of the inconvenience, but occasionally Aith has to concentrate to encourage its summoning of bullets from wherever they come. At least, it feels like it helps.
"And if we're sure we need to stick our heads down each of these passages, do we need to clear them in order? Or can we see if the next one's any friendlier before dealing with ... that?"
She indicates the construct battering away at the magical wall, trying to figure out if it is summoned after all, and which passageway should come next.
They seem indeed summoned. But after the wall of force runs out, the brass man is still there.
Tariq stands before all his friends in a ready position, so that he can strike the brass man when the wall is released.
"Okay! One, two..."
Haleen stands next to Tariq, also ready to attack the creature.